5th Annual Hypothermia Challenge on Chattooga III-1/2 – Merridee Harper and David Blumberg
| River: | Chattooga |
| Skill: | All |
| Trip Date: | 01/31/2004 |
January 31, 2004
Joint Carolina Canoe Club and Foothills Paddling Club trip
CCC: Knut Radloff, Stan Stutts, Gary Mason, Johnson Rice, Jill Dinsdale, Woody O’Brian, Chris & Bridget Nudi, John Hall, Stephen Janes.
FPC: David Blumberg & Merridee Harper, Ruth Albright, Bill Joerger, Fred Metherell,Guy Latham, Whitney Eure.
Seventeen hardy souls braved the weather forecast of a 24º low the night before the trip, going to 50º and sunny the following day. And 10 of them drove a great distance to join us! Of course Knut didn’t want to slum it, so he, Jill, and Johnson stayed at the Greenville, SC Hyatt on Friday night. The rest of the Easterners boarded in more rustic accommodations or bunked with friends.
Several of us met for a local color breakfast of eggs and grits (editors note: local color?) at Jimmy’s Restaurant in Easley, and then drove on to meet the rest at the Bull Sluice parking lot. The day was beautiful, but crisp. The river level was a respectable 1.6′. The group was made up of strong paddlers, but a few of the North Carolina contingent had never run the river before, or at least not the section below the bridge. So we got to show off our home river, which has crystalline water, especially in the winter. The Wild and Scenic corridor along the banks makes it just lovely.
After setting the shuttle between Thrifts Ferry and Woodall Shoals, we put on the river at about 11:30. We had 4 open boats, 2 C-1s and 11 kayaks. Officially, we were split into two groups, since the legal max is 12, but we pretty much stayed in one strung-out flotilla, with Guy and Fred running sweep. That made the stays at the good play spots a little long, but no longer than usual for me, since I boat with play animals.
Stephen had just converted his kayak into a C-1 and this was his maiden voyage. He refused to provide any carnage entertainment, though. Knut was in a brand-new, outfitted-in-the-parking-lot playboat (how DID you fit into that thing??) and on a new river, to boot. He quickly showed us what a talented boater he is.
Chattooga is a drop pool river, so we had plenty of opportunities to play and to get to know each other. We played our way down the river till we got out to look at Bull Sluice. Johnson told Knut that Bull Sluice was “no big deal”. I assured Knut that he should not disrespect it, and he agreed once he saw it. He decided that for his first time he would run the single drop.
Jill ran the double drop, got flipped in the top hole, and ran the sluice upside down. It took a couple of roll attempts, but she made it. Johnson, having seriously damaged his karma, followed Jill’s line almost exactly with similar results. Only he did a face plant on Decap rock when he flipped. He made a couple of UGLY roll attempts until he remembered how to do it correctly and rolled up.
Others ran the Bull cleanly, although I believe Guy was too far left on the single drop and had a bony ride. Chris carried up and ran it a second time, after seeing some section IV jocks do a kind of launch move over Decap. He tried it and it worked quite nicely. Johnson, too, carried up for a second run to redeem himself. Over half of us took the far right line on the Georgia bank…
We had Lunch at the Bull, and then moved on down. No one wanted to risk getting cold by doing any rodeo moves at Swimmers. Stephen set safety at Screaming Left Turn but didn’t get to practice his rope throw as everyone ran it fine. Bridget was the only one with a decent scream. I showed the gang the fun chute just to the left of the pointy rock below Screaming Left Turn and they all woo-hoo’d their way through it.
Bridget had had a bad experience at Rock Jumble a few weeks earlier and decided to carry. No disgrace there.
The only true carnage to report was at Woodall Shoals. Logs blocked the sneak on river right so those of us that ran it had to carry across the scouting rock and put in just below the big hole. I had one of my uglier runs at Woodall – right side up, but often backwards. Gary Mason, OC-1, had an out-of-boat experience near the top of the run. Since he’s an open boater, he’s an experienced swimmer :), so after a few minutes of struggling with his boat and gear in the current and with David’s help, he was able to climb back in and run it the rest of the way down.
We climbed back up to the Woodall Shoals parking lot without too much grumbling from the open boaters. We wanted another fix of local color, so we chose the Moore and Moore Seafood Restaurant just outside of the Chau-Ram County Park entrance for supper. The ambiance was perfect – long wooden picnic tables laden with various renditions of deep-fried batter. We recounted and embellished the events of the day and bade each other an extended chilly farewell in the parking lot! It doesn’t get any better…